Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #535

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
AHawaiianStreamStartedSmellingLike Beer —It TurnedOut toHavea1.2%ABV
By Mike Pomranz
Anyone traveling to Hawaii for pleasure can't be faulted for having a drink or two on the tropical islands. And if you're there for a good time, you might even jest that you were swimming in booze. But in a shocking discov- ery on the island of Oahu, a stream was literally flow- ing with alcohol and a mysterious spill was appar- ently to blame.
After catching wind of the con- tamination, Hawai i News Now had water from the stream in Waipio independently tested and found that it had an alcohol by volume as high as 1.2 percent, nearly a
quarter of the way to Budweiser strength and cer- tainly enough booze to get a slight buzz
going: non-alco- holic beer has to be 0.5 percent ABV or lower.
According to those who visited, the stream con-
tained enough alcohol to make the whole area smell like beer. "The other day we came here you would think it was a beer pub that hadn't opened its doors for three or four days," envi- ronmental activist Carroll Cox, who reportedly tipped
off the Department of Health to the issue, was quoted as saying. "It's disturbing."
As for the cause, the spill was found to be com- ing from a drain pipe which offi- cials traced back to Paradise
Beverages, Hawaii's largest distributor of alco- holic beverages which has a ware- house in the vicin- ity.
And yet, as of the last week, the cause of the spill still wasn't known. "Right now, we've had the
Department of Transportation come in with their representatives and we're dealing with them and we've also been contacted by the Department of Health," Anthony Rowe, Paradise Beverages' direc- tor of operations, told Hawaii News Now. "It may be coming from us so that's why we're working with the proper authorities."
The news station reported that the spill has appar- ently stopped; however, the Health Department was looking into whether enforce- ment actions would be warrant- ed due to the hightened ABV stream.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine